Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
As a typical image forming apparatus employing an electrophotographic method such as a printer and a copier, there has been known an image forming apparatus that includes a photoreceptor drum and an intermediate transfer unit. The photoreceptor drum carries an electrostatic latent image. The intermediate transfer unit transfers a toner image from this photoreceptor drum to a sheet. The intermediate transfer unit includes an intermediate transfer belt and a primary transfer roller to transfer an image with a plurality of colors, typified by a full-color image, to the sheet. The intermediate transfer belt is opposed to and circles around a plurality of the photoreceptor drums. A primary transfer voltage is applied to the primary transfer roller to transfer the toner images from respective photoreceptor drums onto the intermediate transfer belt.
There has been disclosed a technique where respective drum units supporting intermediate transfer units and photoreceptor drums are removably attachable to an apparatus main body of an image forming apparatus.